Southern Bookmantag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-17856342018-02-21T12:54:27-05:00A literary blog for all seasons.TypePadTina Brown revisits vanished era of magazine publishing in "Vanity Fair Diaries"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301b8d2dc4c20970c2018-02-21T12:54:27-05:002018-02-21T14:52:07-05:00Tina Brown during her years transforming Vanity Fair magazine recorded her experiences nearly every day. Brown's "Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983-1992" chronicle a vanished era of wealth and influence for American magazines. Not once does she mention the terms web page, online presence or page views. Brown's metrics at Vanity Fair are writers and stories, achieving the right editorial mix, and choosing the best cover to drive newsstand sales. Magazines amass piles of advertising dollars, rather than hemorrhaging money. The diaries also record the era's crass excesses of wealth and power. After her days of magazine work, Brown plunges into the...louis mayeux

Tina Brown during her years transforming Vanity Fair magazine recorded her experiences nearly every day.

Brown's "Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983-1992" chronicle a vanished era of wealth and influence for American magazines. Not once does she mention the terms web page, online presence or page views. Brown's metrics at Vanity Fair are writers and stories, achieving the right editorial mix, and choosing the best cover to drive newsstand sales. Magazines amass piles of advertising dollars, rather than hemorrhaging money.

The diaries also record the era's crass excesses of wealth and power. After her days of magazine work, Brown plunges into the social whirl of New York City and Hollywood's gilded class. Her impressions of rich, famous and artistically gifted people cover intersecting circles of business, politics and culture. While traipsing to power lunches, gilded dinner parties and ritzy social events, she also strives to carry out her family responsibilities.

Brown came to New York City from more sedate London at age 29 after turning the nearly moribund Tattler into Britain's hottest sheet of glamour and celebrity scandal.

While Brown doesn't explain how such a young and obscure Holly Golightly enters New York City's elite circles, she's married to the much older Harold Evans, the distinguished former editor of the Sunday Times and Times, gaining the couple entry into the exalted realms.

As Harry takes a series of editing jobs below his stature, Brown gains notoriety and acclaim as the editor of Vanity Fair. Revived by Conde Nast owner Si Newhouse after years out of business, the magazine founders editorially and is losing gushers of money when she takes over. She obsessively details how her blending of serious foreign reporting, Hollywood gossip and celebrity scandal makes Vanity Fair a major cultural force. She also takes credit for bringing the magazine to dazzling profitability.

Idealistic journalists will cringe at her sucking up to characters like Henry Kissinger and Nancy Reagan. While she sees herself as a major transformative journalist, most of her Vanity Fair work now looks ephemeral, setting the stage for the Internet age of novelty and celebrity.

A leading character is Si Newhouse, for whom she swings from adulation to disparagement. She calls him a "gerbil" and a "hamster," and derides his erratic decisions such as firing longtime Vogue editor Grace Mirabella, who finds out about her ouster from watching TV. At other moments, she praises Newhouse as a model of wisdom and judgment.

Most of those she chronicles have disappeared from the scene, but others remain on the stage. Her sister Conde Nast superstar Anna Wintour, who took over Mirabella's job at Vogue, now is the chief editor of all Conde Nast publications. Brown's central villain, Rupert Murdoch, who ousted Evans from his exalted Times posts, still exerts enormous power as the owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.

The most disturbing survivor is Donald Trump. Brown gives an appalling, untouched portrait of Trump's narcissism, dishonesty and crudeness, the same traits he displays as president. The diaries impart a vision of him as Yeats' rough beast, circling the establishment's gates, desperate for power.

Baton Rouge Gallery enhances Louisiana capital's cultural landscapetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301b8d2dbf7f9970c2018-02-20T11:19:18-05:002018-02-20T11:47:40-05:00While my native state of Louisiana is a social and economic disaster, Baton Rouge, the state capital, keeps getting better. Downtown Baton Rouge, once abandoned by state Capitol, bank and retail workers at night, now draws visitors at all hours with its exciting restaurants, museums, clubs, concert venues and hotels. Once characterized by white flight to cookie-cutter suburbs, Baton Rouge in recent years has revitalized intown neighborhoods. Despite severe cuts in state funding, LSU offers innovative programs and projects. The city battles a crime problem - the red in Red Stick now means blood from murders - and is beset...louis mayeux

While my native state of Louisiana is a social and economic disaster, Baton Rouge, the state capital, keeps getting better.

Downtown Baton Rouge, once abandoned by state Capitol, bank and retail workers at night, now draws visitors at all hours with its exciting restaurants, museums, clubs, concert venues and hotels.

Once characterized by white flight to cookie-cutter suburbs, Baton Rouge in recent years has revitalized intown neighborhoods. Despite severe cuts in state funding, LSU offers innovative programs and projects.

The city battles a crime problem - the red in Red Stick now means blood from murders - and is beset by racial conflict and economic divisions. Yet, each time I return to my hometown, I'm impressed by the vitality of downtown and older, once languishing neighborhoods.

The Baton Rouge Gallery/Center for Contemporary Arts has become one of my favorite groups leading the old oil/port city's renaissance. I avidly follow the gallery's Facebook page, impressed and enthralled by its ambitious cultural programs.

An artists' co-operative for 50 years, the gallery offers art exhibits, literary readings and social events at the old City Park pool house, which I vividly remember from childhood.

For years, the City Park pool attracted families who changed into their swimsuits in the pool house's locker rooms. I have flickering memories of walking through a rubber mat's grayish chlorinated water and walking down steps to the sun-dazzled pool, holding my mother or father's hand.The pool was also a favorite destination for birthday parties.

I've known for years that the old pool house had been converted into an art gallery. My interest rose at the start of the year when I read in the Baton Rouge Advocate about the gallery's annual Surreal Ball, an international art show that draws guests who wear outlandish costumes.

The 10th annual event this year included more than 60 works representing artists from five different countries and 19 states, according to the gallery's web site. A total of 600 works were submitted to the show, from which the final selections were made.

The gallery's promotion of poetry continues Sunday with a reading by Michael Blanchard, part of the gallery's "Sundays at 4" series.

I follow the gallery's admirable work with a dose of nostalgia. The pool house, with its striking Mediterranean-style architecture, sits upon a small hill adjacent to City Park golf course, the nine-hole layout where I spent countless happy hours during my boyhood. Along with my strong memories of the gigantic pool, I've always been fascinated by its notorious chapter in Baton Rouge history.

Dating back to the 1920s, the pool and its crowds were difficult for lifeguards to control. A series of drownings, how many I can't remember, never seemed to hurt the pool's popularity during the humid Baton Rouge summers.

A wooden wall/bridge separated the pool's shallow and deep ends. Kids who wanted to go to the deep end had to pass a swimming test from one of the lifeguards who patrolled the wall.

But the drowning risk continued, leading to the pool's closure in 1963. Not mentioned was the civil rights movement and efforts by blacks to integrate the pool. Along with the pool's dangers, the city of Baton Rouge didn't wish to allow blacks to swim and use the clubhouse.

Covered up for years, the abandoned pool gave me some of my favorite golf moments. The pool's old brick maintenance shed stood beside par-4 ninth hole's fairway, marking the spot where the hole's dogleg began. As I grew stronger in my teen years, I could drive the ninth's green by "cutting the dogleg" with a tee shot over the pool. Seeing the ball fly over the pool toward the distant green was one of my biggest thrills.

I revisited the old course a few years ago. The pool area had been converted into a large patio, where caterers were setting up tables for an event that afternoon. The ninth hole remained as I'd remembered, its flag stirred by a mellow breeze.

Washington and Lincoln, the brandstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301b8d2dbb29c970c2018-02-19T12:17:47-05:002018-02-19T14:44:54-05:00Washington and Lincoln are smashed together on this day despite their differences. Their historic legacies fading, both presidents with their familiar images exist in a strange realm of all-American satire, advertising, burlesque. Washington appears in a Geico commercial, his boat pulled across the Delaware turnpike as horns honk, and he crankily responds. Lincoln's flag-draped portrait decorates auto dealer ads and mattress sales. The South's smoldering hatred of Lincoln after the Civil War lingers in the holiday's spotty observation in the states of the old Confederacy. Our dutiful city of Atlanta sanitation department carried out its Monday garbage pickup as usual....louis mayeux

Washington and Lincoln are smashed together on this day despite their differences.

Their historic legacies fading, both presidents with their familiar images exist in a strange realm of all-American satire, advertising, burlesque. Washington appears in a Geico commercial, his boat pulled across the Delaware turnpike as horns honk, and he crankily responds.

The South's smoldering hatred of Lincoln after the Civil War lingers in the holiday's spotty observation in the states of the old Confederacy. Our dutiful city of Atlanta sanitation department carried out its Monday garbage pickup as usual.

Washington owned slaves; Lincoln ended slavery. Washington, the first president, was the father of his country. HIs native state, Virginia, led the Confederacy, which Lincoln defeated. Lincoln, with his Gettysburg Address, is seen as completing the union that Washington began. Yet, Lincoln's assassination and the resulting failure of Reconstruction brought nearly a century more of oppression of blacks.

Countless books have been written about each of them. Each is remembered with a monument in the nation's capital. Each flickers in our collective memory. more myth than real men.

In the South, many saw Robert E. Lee as Washington's successor, as a native Virginian and as a general like Washington leading a ragtag army against a stronger foe. That Lee, unlike Washington, eventually failed made him more heroic across the defeated South.

Now, the tide is turning against Lee, increasingly seen as a traitor. Statues of Lee thrown up after Reconstruction across the South have been removed.

Along with fellow Virginian and slaveowner Thomas Jefferson, Washington's image has suffered. Yet no move has gained force to strike his portrait from the dollar, or tear down his statues, or change the name of the nation's capital. Washington's nobility in winning the nation's independence from Britain and as the nation's first president establishing the republic outweighs his slave ownership.

As the country falls apart, and Congress and the current president make spurious efforts to improve the country's "infrastructure," Lincoln should also be remembered for the transcontinental railroad and other economic programs.

Washington and Lincoln. What do they mean for us, when children are slaughtered in their schools, Lincoln's party grows ever more racist, the nation is bogged down in interminable wars, Russia meddles in elections?

Their lives and words recede from the nation's memory. How many even know the historical origins of that Geico ad?

George Orwell shows generous side in 1948 review reprinted by Times Literary Supplementtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301b8d2d2b5d1970c2018-01-23T13:10:28-05:002018-01-23T13:12:21-05:00The Times Literary Supplement recently republished a review by George Orwell originally published in 1948 in which Orwell praises a New Directions Press anthology of new American writing. James Laughlin's New Directions was known for publishing avant garde and sexually explicit books subject to government censorship, which in those days remained stringent. Orwell in the review displays his customary fresh writing, praising Laughlin and New Directions for championing writers out of the mainstream. He also makes perceptive comments on the state of American literature. In his surprisingly generous review, Orwell comments that he believes that gap between popular mainstream books...louis mayeux

The Times Literary Supplement recently republished a review by George Orwell originally published in 1948 in which Orwell praises a New Directions Press anthology of new American writing.

James Laughlin's New Directions was known for publishing avant garde and sexually explicit books subject to government censorship, which in those days remained stringent.

Orwell in the review displays his customary fresh writing, praising Laughlin and New Directions for championing writers out of the mainstream. He also makes perceptive comments on the state of American literature.

In his surprisingly generous review, Orwell comments that he believes that gap between popular mainstream books and avant garde works was wider in the United States than in England. Expressing skepticism about the entire concept of the avant garde, he points to an American reluctance to read books that threaten conventional thought.

The review cites work by well-known American writers then emerging, as well as several already established. E.E. Cummings catches Orwell's most stringent criticism. Orwell had little patience for Cummings' typographical experiments, although he seems to like a Cummings poem in the anthology.

I was interested to discover that Henry Miller was already well-known. Orwell praises Miller's work, expressing appreciation for "Tropic of Capricorn" rather than "Tropic of Cancer," represented in the anthology.

Also of interest: Orwell cites a short story by John Berryman. Berryman would go on to make hs name as a poet rather than a fiction writer.

At the time of the review, Orwell had not yet published "1984," so was not yet the Orwell so revered today. He was a working journalist who made a living turning out such reviews.

His "1984" would make him a world-renowned icon. Alas, he would die soon after the book's appearance.

Mathias Énard's "Compass" an intellectually challenging, emotionally enriching noveltag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301bb09eb5509970d2018-01-22T12:49:32-05:002018-01-22T14:11:46-05:00Mathias Énard's "Compass" traces the interior journey of aging Viennese musicologist Franz Ritter during a long, sleepless night. Recently diagnosed with a serious disease, or perhaps it's his hypochondria, Ritter spends the hours thinking about the connections between Western culture and the Mideast. He's obsessed with European concepts of "the other" and "alterity." This leads him into imagined conversations with Thomas Mann, Wagner, and Edward Said. Ritter's sardonic doctor, who sounds like a holdover from the Third Reich, has refused to give Ritter a prescription for his beloved opium. Guess there's no Ambien in Vienna. During the slow progression toward...louis mayeux

Recently diagnosed with a serious disease, or perhaps it's his hypochondria, Ritter spends the hours thinking about the connections between Western culture and the Mideast.

He's obsessed with European concepts of "the other" and "alterity." This leads him into imagined conversations with Thomas Mann, Wagner, and Edward Said.

Ritter's sardonic doctor, who sounds like a holdover from the Third Reich, has refused to give Ritter a prescription for his beloved opium. Guess there's no Ambien in Vienna.

During the slow progression toward sunrise, Ritter uncovers the contributions made by Persian and Arabic composers, writers and artists to Western art, literature and music. Ritter with his encyclopedic knowledge expresses belief in a unified human civilization.

While Ritter's dazzling intellectual flights give a challenging education in European and Islamic culture, the novel's essential beauty comes from his recollections of journeys to Mideastern places.

Ritter's recollections of travels with a European coterie of "Orientalists" reveal a cosmopolitan world of conversation, music, food and love. He recalls the grace and richness of Aleppo, recently devastated by the Syrian civil war, and a visit to the ancient ruins of Palmyra, destroyed by Isis before the Sunni group's defeat. Istanbul and Tehran also glow in beauty and sensual pleasures before the rise of repressive Islamic leaders.

The book's most heartbreaking sequence describes how the Iranian revolution's promise of democracy and freedom after the shah's downfall was thwarted by the Ayatollah Khomeni's reactionary regime.

While Ritter's cultural digressions resemble an intellectual treatise, "Compass" dazzles as a novel brimming with fully imagined set pieces and memorable secondary characters.

The primary unifying story comes from Ritter's lamentations about his lost love for a beguiling woman named Sarah, also an academic excited by connections among different cultures. As the night stretches on, Ritter muses over his failed relationship with her. A spiritual searcher, Sarah has left her home in Paris to explore primitive cultures in Malaysia after a period seeking Buddhist enlightenment.

Ritter recalls a series of interactions with Sarah through the years, ranging from Mideastern excursions and academic conferences to her romantically thwarted visits to Vienna. The relationship between them ranges from romantic tenderness to the excitement of shared ideas to slapstick comedy. With all of his erudition and cultural perceptiveness, Franz is amazingly obtuse about Sarah. The novel closes on a beautiful, ambiguous interchange between the two, showing that love letters will maintain their power in the age of email.

Edward Said's influential treatise "Orientalism" is a touchstone of "Compass." The storytelling structure of "A Thousand and One Nights" is another talisman, along with Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past." Ritter's voice also recalls that of Camus' solitary first-person narrator in "The Fall."

While questions of accuracy recently rose in Deborah Smith's translation of South Korean novelist Han Kong's "The Vegetarian," Mandell rendered Énard's original French with exactitude and artistic brilliance. Énard's long, meandering sentences register in English with the exquisite beauty of their original language. A description of Istanbul's waterfront as seen through a window during an early evening gathering combined poetic musicality with visual precision.

Énard's demands on the reader are rewarded with aesthetic power and intellectual enrichment. Moments of hope and beauty break through clouds of despair and sorrow. Flashes of black-tinged humor lighten the mood. While I at times felt disoriented as if lost in a labyrinth, Énard's compass had a true direction.

moments of hope and beauty breaking through clouds of despair and sorrow. While I at times felt disoriented as if lost in a labyrinth,

Alabama-Georgia matchup recalls Butts-Bryant controversy of early '60stag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301b8d2cc0875970c2018-01-02T12:15:36-05:002018-01-02T12:16:23-05:00The Georgia-Alabama matchup in the NCAA championship game recalls one of the strangest Southern college football stories - the Wally Butts-Bear Bryant caper. The Saturday Evening Post alleged in 1963 that Butts, Georgia's athletics director after a long career as the Bulldogs' football coach, and Bear Bryant, Alabama's coach, fixed a 1962 game between the two schools. The magazine's story said that Butts in a telephone conversation gave Bryant Georgia's plays, defensive strategy and other inside information. An insurance agent claimed he overheard the discussion when he picked up a phone and found himself connected to Butts and Bryant. The...louis mayeux

The Georgia-Alabama matchup in the NCAA championship game recalls one of the strangest Southern college football stories - the Wally Butts-Bear Bryant caper.

The Saturday Evening Post alleged in 1963 that Butts, Georgia's athletics director after a long career as the Bulldogs' football coach, and Bear Bryant, Alabama's coach, fixed a 1962 game between the two schools.

The magazine's story said that Butts in a telephone conversation gave Bryant Georgia's plays, defensive strategy and other inside information. An insurance agent claimed he overheard the discussion when he picked up a phone and found himself connected to Butts and Bryant.

The football legends sued the Curtis Co., the magazine's Philadelphia-based publisher. Trial testimony disclosed that Butts and Bryant had been talking together at the same time and date as the magazine reported, but their lawyers convinced the jury that the longtime friends had been talking about football in general. Each man won judgments of millions of dollars, which reportedly led to the magazine going out of business, although the awards were reduced significantly later.

That drama unfolded in a different world when the Civil Rights movement was rising and the Southeastern Conference's all-white teams collided in defensive battles in which passes were rare.

Now, black stars dominate and teams have sophisticated passing attacks, although Georgia and Alabama emphasize the run. Georgia coach Kirby Smart was a member of Alabama coach Nick Saban's staff, but they are unlikely to have much contact before the big game except for public media events. With today's videotape scouting and the sport's massive TV coverage, little stays secret about teams' plans.

Wally Butts had another distinction in Bulldog history - he coached Georgia's victory over UCLA in the 1943 Rose Bowl, the school's last appearance in Pasadena before Monday's thrilling 54-48 win over Oklahoma to go to the championship.

Happy Days are Here Again! Doug Jones Takes Alabamatag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301bb09dfbc8e970d2017-12-13T11:22:26-05:002017-12-13T11:45:04-05:00Doug Jones' win in Alabama was one of those amazing moments of joy and wonder, when the stars align and the great dice game of the universe rolls the right numbers. Here are a few media impressions from the historic night, after bouncing back and forth from MSNBC to CNN as Jones steadily gained on the sour accused child molester Roy Moore, finally bursting ahead. Although Moore acted like the churlish crackpot who refuses to leave the party, Jones by midnight appeared safe from any recount shenanigans or GOP maneuvers to steal the victory. The GOP establishment seemed to want...louis mayeux

Doug Jones' win in Alabama was one of those amazing moments of joy and wonder, when the stars align and the great dice game of the universe rolls the right numbers.

Here are a few media impressions from the historic night, after bouncing back and forth from MSNBC to CNN as Jones steadily gained on the sour accused child molester Roy Moore, finally bursting ahead.

Although Moore acted like the churlish crackpot who refuses to leave the party, Jones by midnight appeared safe from any recount shenanigans or GOP maneuvers to steal the victory.

The GOP establishment seemed to want Moore to go away, and take his horse with him.

Here are a few media impressions.

Caution by MSNBC

MSNBC trailed CNN in calling the election, showing an excess of caution as its own Steve Kornacki gave solid mathematical evidence that still uncounted votes in Birmingham, Mobile and Selma would swing to Jones. Then MSNBC gave credence to Moore's graceless claim that he still had a chance to win by making Kornacki explain his analysis once more.

Barkley comes up big

Relishing Jones' victory, proud Alabamian Charles Barkley gave the Democratic Party the right prescription for continued success.

Barkley, expressing pride in his native state for ousting Moore, accused the Democratic Party of taking the black vote for granted over the years. A strong turnout of black voters carried Jones to victory.

The engaging pro basketball commentator and former Auburn and NBA star said that the party needs to develop economic and education programs to boost black families, and the white working class.

Showing perceptive political analysis, Barkley said that after Jones' win, Congress must focus on public education, jobs and the infrastructure. These are issues that the GOP under Donald Trump is ignoring, giving tax cuts to the nation's corporations and richest 1 percent while the middle class and poor struggle. Such a Democratic agenda would result in long-term gains.

Barkley, who has aired political ambitions, would be an articulate and charismatic candidate. While his TNT NBA comments are amusing and knowledgeable, Barkley can also be a star in the political arena.

Raines comes through

Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines presided over one of the newspaper's historic low points, the Jayson Blair scandal. But the Alabama native capitalized on his deep knowledge of the state in perceptive analysis for MSNBC.

Appearing Tuesday night on Lawrence O'Donnell's show, Raines was one of the few who predicted a Jones win, based on the strength of suburban professional voters turned off by Moore. After Jones' surge to victory, Raines gave strong analysis of Sen. Richard Shelby's devastating turn against Moore, tying it to Shelby's representation of Alabama's business community and the University of Alabama.

Brian Williams on board

Former NBC news anchor Brian Williams was a steady professional presence in his late show on MSNBC, a reassuring turn from the giddy Rachel Maddow and gloating O'Donnell. Williams showed his cool in eliciting in-depth knowledge from Raines and from Washington Post political reporters.

Tapper on a hot streak

While CNN graybeard Wolf Blitzer draws derision for his befuddled reactions to John King's map changes, the network's Jake Tapper has been on a hot streak.

First Tapper took on the White House for its insidious "fake news" propaganda. Then Tapper got Shelby to disclose that he had written in a Senate candidate rather than vote for Moore. In the interview on Tapper's Sunday morning show, Shelby urged Alabamians to write in candidates rather than support Moore.

Tapper was the most perceptive CNN commentator Tuesday night, with pointed interactions with Dana Bash. He also was the catalyst for Barkley's strong comments.

AJC stirs itself

I was surprised that the usually dormant Atlanta Journal-Constitution acted like a real newspaper and ran an article on Jones' victory stripped across the top of the front page. News in my paper delivered to my driveway! What a concept. Alas, the article was by The New York Times, not an AJC reporter on the scene.

Echoing the Journal and Constitution's decision in 1965 to not cover the Selma to Montgomery march, the AJC gave little coverage to the Alabama race, outside of wire stories buried inside. Guess the AJC feared upsetting conservative suburban readers, its fallback editorial policy.

With Democratic gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans hoping to match the winning Alabama formula in Georgia, the newspaper should have at least sent political columnist Jim Galloway to Alabama for one of his inscrutable pieces.

Premier League soccer a break from NFL carnagetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301bb09df2d6c970d2017-12-11T12:37:49-05:002017-12-11T12:49:37-05:00After avoiding the NFL during the first part of the season, I've relapsed into watching the appalling/enthralling league. The Saints' unexpected rise to the top of the NFC South standings knocked me off the wagon. Now, as more and more Saints fall to injury, they look poised for a late season collapse, with the Falcons and Panthers gaining. Ah, the life of the NFL fan, as sick as a crack addict. You just get excited about a young player, when he's knocked out for the season. I was watching Eagles QB Carson Wentz for the first time, against the Rams...louis mayeux

After avoiding the NFL during the first part of the season, I've relapsed into watching the appalling/enthralling league.

The Saints' unexpected rise to the top of the NFC South standings knocked me off the wagon. Now, as more and more Saints fall to injury, they look poised for a late season collapse, with the Falcons and Panthers gaining.

Ah, the life of the NFL fan, as sick as a crack addict. You just get excited about a young player, when he's knocked out for the season. I was watching Eagles QB Carson Wentz for the first time, against the Rams in the legendary LA Coliseum, when the burly young Wentz was felled by a torn ACL. Foles rushed in to secure the Eagles' win over the anxious young Rams.

The Premier League sedative

Earlier Sunday morning, waiting for the NFL's slaughterhouse to begin anew, I watched Manchester City smother cross-town rival Manchester United in a lackluster game in the English Premier Soccer League. Or football league, as they call it in old England. Little did I know that the "derby" win gave Man City an imposing 11-point lead in the league standings.

Aside from the usual dives and pretend injuries, no one was carted off the field with paralyzing spine injures, concussions, or torn ligaments. The Man City goalie did take a hard shot in the Adam's apple, a la old Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek in a World Series game long ago, but kept on playing. Maybe his neck tattoo gave him all the protection he needed.

Stanton-Judge, Jackson-Munson, Maris-Mantle, Ruth-Gehrig

Speaking of the Yankees, guess we can start hating them again after the Giancarlo Stanton deal. First the NBA has 6-9 guys playing point guard. Now baseball has guys that tall in the outfield.

With the the 6-6 Stanton joining the 6-7 Judge, the Yanks will have size rivaling that of the Knicks or the New York (football) Giants.

Two big and burly right fielders who hit home runs and strike out a lot. Makes sense.

Rookie manager Aaron Boone will have fun figuring out which guy to DH. Filling out the pitching rotation looks daunting for now, but I'm sure the Yanks will add a couple of arms before spring training.

Wonder what the Yankees marketing department will come up with to match the charming PR stunt in which Judge's fans wore judge's wigs and robes and shouted "all rise" when the big rookie came to bat in Yankee Stadium? Perhaps the Giancarlo Stanton station, with a rail motif and fans wearing conductor's hats.

Angels take wing with pitcher-hitter

Meanwhile, the Angels are figuring out how to schedule Japanese sensation Shohel Ohtani to pitch and hit. Wonder if the Angels won't even use a DH on the days when Ohtani takes the mound. When his six innings or so of pitching are done, perhaps the Angels will move him to another position for the rest of the game.

The Angels experiment likely won't work, but at least baseball is trying out some new concepts.

Atlanta mayor's race brings partisan rancortag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301b7c93a4ed2970b2017-12-05T17:03:33-05:002017-12-05T17:03:33-05:00Mary Norwood supporters lined the Peachtree Road sidewalks on election day Tuesday. Wearing blue T-shirts with white lettering and leaping up and down like high school cheerleaders, they looked like Buckhead matrons who had escaped yoga class or the book club for the day. A city firetruck festooned with Norwood signs sped by. One prominent sign said "Firefighters for Mary." The 65-year-old Norwood, who speaks in the syrupy tones of Northside money, has generated enthusiasm among affluent communities tired of black control of city hall and reports of payoffs and insider dealing. Keisha Lance Bottoms, Norwood's black opponent, has painted...louis mayeux

Mary Norwood supporters lined the Peachtree Road sidewalks on election day Tuesday. Wearing blue T-shirts with white lettering and leaping up and down like high school cheerleaders, they looked like Buckhead matrons who had escaped yoga class or the book club for the day.

A city firetruck festooned with Norwood signs sped by. One prominent sign said "Firefighters for Mary."

The 65-year-old Norwood, who speaks in the syrupy tones of Northside money, has generated enthusiasm among affluent communities tired of black control of city hall and reports of payoffs and insider dealing.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, Norwood's black opponent, has painted Norwood as a closet Republican and found surprising support from the national Democratic Party for what has always been a nonpartisan election.

After losing the Jon Ossoff congressional election, the national Democrats have sent stars Corey Booker and Kamala Harris to campaign for Bottoms, who has been abandoned by several black political leaders feuding with her key backer, outgoing Mayor Kasim Reed.

Both candidates have raised millions. A federal investigation into City Hall corruption has done nothing to stem the flow of money from influential Atlanta businesses and political heavyweights.

While Norwood has claimed that she'll represent the entire city, the election shows that black-white divisions and northside-southside conflict remain the main driver in city politics.

Annie Proulx's call for a happy nostalgiatag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e551bd0760883301b8d2bf3dac970c2017-11-17T11:40:09-05:002017-11-17T11:44:54-05:00Annie Proulx after winning the National Book Awards' lifetime achievement medal gave a highly praised speech decrying the country's destructive politics and environmental devastation for the sake of corporate profits. Yet, I was bothered by Proulx's closing statement in support of "happy endings." Proulx's beneficial prescriptions deny the tragic vision of our greatest literature. We strive for reconciliation and redemption, yet fall short of the glory of God. In Victorian England, audiences couldn't accept Cordelia's death in "King Lear." Some fool rewrote Shakespeare's greatest play so that Cordelia lives and is reconciled with the old king. I'm sure Proulx understands...louis mayeux

Annie Proulx after winning the National Book Awards' lifetime achievement medal gave a highly praised speech decrying the country's destructive politics and environmental devastation for the sake of corporate profits.

Yet, I was bothered by Proulx's closing statement in support of "happy endings." Proulx's beneficial prescriptions deny the tragic vision of our greatest literature. We strive for reconciliation and redemption, yet fall short of the glory of God.

In Victorian England, audiences couldn't accept Cordelia's death in "King Lear." Some fool rewrote Shakespeare's greatest play so that Cordelia lives and is reconciled with the old king.

I'm sure Proulx understands the truth of tragedy. Shakespeare also wrote comedies in which love conquers all. At the end of his career, he turned away from tragedy and toward a more benevolent view of humanity, expressed in "The Tempest."

Dickens' "The Christmas Carol" reflects Proulx's vision. She cities an anecdote about Darwin allegedly tossing novels into the fire if they didn't have happy endings. That sounds like the Victorian sentimentality, which Darwin did so much to demolish. Dickens, with his tale of Scrooge and the Cratchets, presented a persuasive statement against Darwin's survival of the fittest. Tiny Tim's blessing at the end expresses liberalism's hope.

I like Dickens, and Hollywood rom-coms, and Disney endings (although Bambi's mother and Old Yeller both died.) Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed's community gathering at the close of "It's a Wonderful Life" is one of my favorite movie scenes. I also recognize Dickens and Capra's emotional manipulation.

What worries me is that Proulx's message can lead to the kind of kitsch that authoritarians use to control us. Her views reflect a dangerous nostalgia, the fuel of "Make America Great Again." After Donald Trump's election, writers like Garrison Keillor called for progressives and liberals to enter a path of denial, cultivating their personal interests and ignoring politics.

No one wanted to admit the extent of Trump's program to demolish the middle class, destroy our national parks, ravage the environment, use public policy in support of his family's and fellow plutocrats' greed. Now, each day, we are confronted with a total assault on the best American values.

Here is the conclusion of Proulx's remarks:

The happy ending still beckons, and it is in hope of grasping it that we go on. The poet Wisława Szymborska caught the writer’s dilemma of choosing between hard realities and the longing for the happy ending. She called it “consolation.” Darwin: They say he read novels to relax, but only certain kinds—nothing that ended unhappily. If he happened on something like that, enraged, he flung the book into the fire. True or not, I’m ready to believe it. Scanning in his mind so many times and places, he’s had enough with dying species, the triumphs of the strong over the weak, the endless struggle to survive, all doomed sooner or later. He’d earned the right to happy ending, at least in fiction, with its micro-scales.

Hence the indispensable silver lining, the lovers reunited, the families reconciled, the doubts dispelled, fidelity rewarded, fortunes regained, treasures uncovered, stiff-necked neighbors mending their ways, good names restored, greed daunted, old maids married off to worthy parsons, troublemakers banished to other hemispheres, forgers of documents tossed down the stairs, seducers scurried to the altar, orphans sheltered, widows comforted, pride humbled, wounds healed, prodigal sons summoned home, cups of sorrow tossed into the ocean, hankies drenched with tears of reconciliation, general merriment and celebration, and the dog Fido, gone astray in the first chapter, turns up barking gladly in the last. Thank you.